No Medium Sparedhttps://nomediumspared.wordpress.com
Innovation is rewarded, Execution is WorshippedFri, 18 Aug 2017 02:52:25 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngNo Medium Sparedhttps://nomediumspared.wordpress.com
How to add Custom Campaign parameters to your URLhttps://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/how-to-add-custom-campaign-parameters-to-your-url/
https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/how-to-add-custom-campaign-parameters-to-your-url/#respondThu, 26 Jun 2014 14:58:24 +0000http://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/?p=213]]>Say you wrote a killer blog post and shared your link to various social networks. How do you track how many people clicked on the links on the various platforms? Or whether the link was more effective in your page post ads, or your link ads.

What if you share the same link on email? Google URL builder allows you to track your campaigns and shows you how users are getting to your site. It’s real purpose however is to allow you yo track which of your links got the best result.

Using the link URL builder, you can add information to your links to tell you what the link is about, where the traffic came from etc.

HOW DO YOU START?

Start at the Google URL Builder
On that page you will see a form asking for various details.

Step 1. Enter the website URL which is the link you want you want to share.

Step 2. Enter the Campaign Source which is the source of where you are putting the link whether Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc

Step 3. Enter the Campaign Medium which is what kind of source the traffic is coming from. Is it a Facebook Page Post, Facebook Link Ad, Facebook Personal Post.

Step 4.Campaign Name. This just describes your campaign so that you can easily identify it in Google analytics.

If you want to get even more granular, you can fill out the other optional bits of information.

Campaign Term:
This is where you can mention keywords you are using as part of your advertising campaign. You would have to create multiple URL’s with different keywords/terms.
URL 1 – Campaign term = Real Estate
URL 2 – Campaign term = Luxury Homes

Campaign Content: This can be used to describe your content. Say you have two posts, one that offers a 10% discount and the other that is a buy one get one free. You can separate the two to see which one worked better.

Real World Example

You have a campaign that you want to run, driving traffic from Facebook to your real estate website http://www.house.com. This is how you would go about it:

]]>https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/how-to-add-custom-campaign-parameters-to-your-url/feed/0reggieaddaeScreen Shot 2014-06-25 at 3.00.20 PMScreen Shot 2014-06-25 at 3.14.07 PMGoogle URL Builder resulting URLTracking Events in Google Analytics with Universal Analytics(analytics.js)https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/tracking-events-in-google-analytics-with-universal-analyticsanalytics-js/
https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/tracking-events-in-google-analytics-with-universal-analyticsanalytics-js/#respondThu, 26 Jun 2014 14:57:13 +0000http://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/?p=211]]>Lots of webmasters use Google Analytics but not many implement Event Tracking. Event tracking is a powerful tool that allows you to track anything from a simple click on a link on your site, to the time at which a video on your site was paused.

What exactly is Event Tracking and why is it important?

The basic Google Analytics code allows you to measure lots of top level data (traffic to your website, where people are going on your site, how long they spend on it, etc). So why bother with event tracking? Before we even begin let us define an event. Google defines an event as

So now we have the definition, lets address our previous question. For starters, the default Google Analytics code can’t track any event which does not generate a page view when it occurs. It can measure when users go from one page to another but things liek link clicks to external sites, or other interactions with webpage elements cannot be tracked. Implementing event tracking allows you to measure these events, allowing you to get even more granular with your data.

With a little bit of code, you can start to get data on events that can range from:

Downloading a file

Loading of Ajax, JavaScript or flash contents

Loading of pop-ups, light boxes

Loading of a flash video on a webpage

Viewing of a flash video

Viewing video footage of certain length

Clicking on a video’s play/pause/stop button

Interaction with a gadget

Clicking on an image or a link

Abandonment of a form

Log-ins

Sharing/printing a blog post, article, video or image

This means that now you can not only see that User A went from your about page to your contact page, but you can also track whether User A clicked the button on the sidebar to get there or read everything before clicking on the button at the bottom of the page.

How do I create the event tracking code?

So now you know what it is, how do you create the tracking code. The code is made up of 5 elements that you need to pass on to Google Analytics. These are Category, Action, Label, Value and NonInteraction.

Category is what you call the group of similar events you want to track. Things like ‘videos’ or ‘Button Clicks” or “Forms” etc. (mandatory)

Action is the name of the type event you want to track like ‘play’ ‘stop’ ‘pause’ etc. (mandatory)

Label allows you to add additional information about the element you want to track like the title of a video, or name of a downloadable file or location of a button. (optional)

Value is a numerical value assigned to the event based on its perceived value to your business. (optional)

Opt_noninteraction – This allows you to prevent event interactions from being included in your bounce rate calculations.(optional)

Google has now switched everyone over to Universal Analytics using a new tracking file called analytics.js as opposed to ga.js. so our tutorial will focus on analytics.js.

An Example

To help make it clearer here is an example. Let’s say you want to track clicks on a social media link to your Facebook page.
Your Category would be “Social”
Your Action would be a “View”Label would be “Facebook”Value of 10 based on the perceived value to you.opt_nonnteraction would be “{‘nonInteraction’: 1}” so the events here does not affect the bounce rate.

With this code the non interaction value is set, so that the tracked event will not impact the bounce rate calculations. Also in order for the Event to send data to Google when someone clicks on the link, we put the code inside the onClick function.

]]>https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/tracking-events-in-google-analytics-with-universal-analyticsanalytics-js/feed/0reggieaddaeHow to turn strangers into customers and promoters of your business (inbound marketing)https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/how-to-turn-strangers-into-customers-and-promoters-of-your-business-inbound-marketing/
https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/how-to-turn-strangers-into-customers-and-promoters-of-your-business-inbound-marketing/#respondThu, 26 Jun 2014 14:53:42 +0000http://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/?p=209]]>Turning strangers into customers is not rocket science!

Are you a marketer who wants to innovate to grow your business and cut through the clutter and noise? Do you have a list of customers but don’t know how to convert them into paying or repeat customers? Inbound marketing can help you turn strangers into customers and get them to promote your business.

An Introduction to Lead Generation

The old outbound marketing methods of buying ads, cold calling, paying for introductions, billboards, print, radio are highly ineffective. Not only do you need to have large pockets to make an impact, but everyone is using the same tactics and going after the same customers. As consumers we do not like to be bombarded with intrusive marketing. By now we’ve all learned to ignore the numbers, emails and other items from individuals we don’t know and have evolved to be able to drown out the noise. So as a marketer, how do you grow your business and reach create new customers from strangers?

How does inbound marketing work?

It is called Inbound marketing. Inbound marketing instead of going out chasing clients, focuses on generating quality content that brings people to your company and product or services, naturally. By creating content that is relevant to your customer’s interests and needs, you naturally attract inbound traffic to your platforms that you can then convert into customers, and eventually promoters of your business. Think about the sites you bookmark, or articles you save. They are all items that were well written, and provided some benefit or were of some use to you. Once you can provide content to your audience that is useful to them, they will find your content and keep coming back.

What is the benefit to you?

Inbound Lead Generation can turn you from that annoying marketer to the company in the highest demand. Instead of pushing out interruptive messages that can easily be ignored, you will be providing educational and entertaining content that your potential customers are already searching for online making you a valuable resource that they keep coming back to. Essentially by providing value, you will attract strangers to your brand and turn them into customers.

]]>https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/how-to-turn-strangers-into-customers-and-promoters-of-your-business-inbound-marketing/feed/0reggieaddae5 YouTube Tips and Tricks you should knowhttps://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/5-youtube-tips-and-tricks-you-should-know/
https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/5-youtube-tips-and-tricks-you-should-know/#respondThu, 26 Jun 2014 14:52:19 +0000http://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/?p=207]]>Want to learn how to bypass regional blocks or download YouTube videos? We give you the scoop on how to do just that. Here are some tricks we discovered as we did some great work for some of our clients.

2. Loop a video continuously

Have a favorite song and want to hear it over and over again? Or a video that is so funny you just want to loop it. Well we can help. To constantly replay a video add “infinitelooper” to replace “youtube” in url so. With the previous example instead of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26rXBSb5Oa8 you would put http://www.infinitelooper.com/?v=26rXBSb5Oa8

3. Search 2.0

Are you searching for a video but not sure what exactly it is called? You know a few of the words in the title but not all of it. Use allintitle: to search to get the keywords that are all in the title. So lets say you are looking for “Midgets” in a “Car”. You would put allintitle: midget car

4. Download YouTube Videos

Disclaimer: you didn’t read this from us... To download a YouTube video lets say youtube.com/watch?v=MGq3UZksx3s . Add pwn in front of the youtube, so it becomes pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=MGq3UZksx3s

5. Bypass regional blocks

(Disclaimer when in Rome) Want to watch a video but you can’t because you are not in a specific region? This tip will show you how to bypass regional blocks. Take the YouTube URL from watch?v=IEIWdEDFlQY to /v/IEIWdEDFlQY

That’s all the tips you get today. Don’t forget to follow us to get more tips and and tricks for different digital platforms.

]]>https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/5-youtube-tips-and-tricks-you-should-know/feed/0reggieaddae5 ways to decrease page load times for your websitehttps://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/5-ways-to-decrease-page-load-times-for-your-website/
https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/5-ways-to-decrease-page-load-times-for-your-website/#respondThu, 26 Jun 2014 14:50:53 +0000http://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/?p=205]]>A lot of companies know how to build gorgeous websites, but very few know how to optimize them to decrease page load times. In an attempt to create a “modern” site with all the bells and whistles, they load the site with CSS and Javascript files and loads of images, resulting in a slow website. Not your website you say. Go to Pingdom right now and measure your website speed. I dare you. A study published by Akamai and Gomez found that nearly half of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less. If it takes more than 3 seconds, they abandon it and go elsewhere. Now how long did it take your site to load? Read on to learn how to be a Digital Ninja and decrease your page load times.

5 Ways To Decrease Page Load Times and Speed Up Your Website

Now you are ready to optimize your site, the first step is simple.

1. Limit the number of files that are necessary to display your website.

Building a site with all the bells and whistles is great, but a lot of the time you end up with unnecessary files. When a customer is visiting you for the first time, all those files that create all those extra effects, etc need to be sent to the person’s browser before they see your beautiful creation. Think all the CSS files, Javascript library references, images. All those need to be sent to the persons browser before the site can load. Eliminating unnecessary files will help to decrease page load times by minimizing the number of HTTP requests.

2. An easy one but one people forget. Optimize and correctly display your images

We are all guilty of this. Either from lack of knowledge of how to save images or because we don’t want to lose image quality but it can decrease the page load time of your site significantly. Make sure that your images are as small as possible but still of the quality you would like. When saving your images in Photoshop, just use the “Save for web” option. Only use png’s if you absolutely have to (transparent backgrounds) otherwise try and keep all images as pngs. YOUR IMAGE SHOULD NEVER BE LARGER THAN 1MB. You can use a tool like Image Optimizer to reduce image sizes. If you are developing on WordPress you can use EWWW Image Optimizer or Wp Smush Itas well to keep your images a respectable size.

3. Minify your HTML, CSS and Javascript

When you are coding your site, best practice requires you have good structure, comment your code, and follow best practices. This is all well and good in the development stage, but once you are done with coding and uploading your files to your server, you should remove all the white space from your code before serving it to visitors. Crawlers and bots don’t need white space to be able to read your code. The logic behind this is that the smaller the KB size of your webpage and its scripts, the faster your page will load. This will also put less demand on your web server(s). You can use tools like WP-MinifyorW3 Total Cacheto achieve this.

4. GZip and compress components

Basically GZip makes your sever compress all your files before it sends them to the users browser making the transmitted data smaller and thus speeding up delivery and decreasing page load times. It can compress your file sizes by up to 90%. To test to see if your server is already compressing your files go to HTTP COMPRESSION TEST and type in your URL. It will tell you whether your browser is requesting compressed content and if your site is compressed. If it is not, you can easily turn it on by dropping a few lines of code in your .htaccess file.

5. Add expires headings

Utilizing browser caching is another good way of decreasing your page load time. This means we don’t ask the browser to pull copies of static files every time we load the page. We can do this using the “ExpiresByType” directive to tell the browsers which files to cache and how long to cache them for. Again the code should for into your .htaccess file on an Apache server.

]]>https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/giant-map-of-the-entire-social-media-landscape/feed/0reggieaddaeCreated by Brian Solis and visualised by JESS3.Vine Videos: 2/3rds of the worlds data will be Video by 2017https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/vine-videos-23rds-of-the-worlds-data-will-be-video-by-2017/
https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/vine-videos-23rds-of-the-worlds-data-will-be-video-by-2017/#respondSun, 22 Sep 2013 11:30:27 +0000http://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/?p=191]]>

Need to sell Vine to a client? Here is an infographic from Digital Buzz Blog to help.

]]>https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/vine-videos-23rds-of-the-worlds-data-will-be-video-by-2017/feed/0reggieaddaeVine Videos: 2/3rds of the worlds data will be Video by 2017Joomla Error: Could not connect to the database. Connector returned number.https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/joomla-error-could-not-connect-to-the-database-connector-returned-number/
https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/joomla-error-could-not-connect-to-the-database-connector-returned-number/#respondThu, 19 Sep 2013 15:47:38 +0000http://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/?p=177]]>If you are running MAMP, and trying to install or setup Joomla, you will reach a point, where you have to connect to the database. Normal instructions tell you to enter the all the information using root as your username and leaving the password blank. This returns the error “Could not connect to the database. Connector returned number.”

Here is how you get around it.

First off, if you are at this point, it means you are on Step 4 of the install (the database step), which means that:

1. you atleast have managed to get the Apache Server portion of MAMP running, and hopefully the MySQL portion as well (make sure that the green icon in the status area of the MAMP window has the same status as the Apache one above it).

2. You have installed your Joomla files in the right directory: Applications/MAMP/htdocs/Joomla (or whatever you named it)

You measure, because without data, you only have opinions. Analyze because the data you collect can’t help you if you don’t understand it, or use it to shape your decisions or identify new trends.

Why measurement is important in the digital space

]]>https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/you-measure-be/feed/0reggieaddaeWhat exactly is Social Mediahttps://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/what-exactly-is-social-media/
https://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/what-exactly-is-social-media/#respondThu, 19 Sep 2013 15:19:48 +0000http://nomediumspared.wordpress.com/?p=173]]>Social media is a phrase you hear a lot these days, there is no escaping it. From status updates on Facebook, tweets on Twitter, viral videos on youTube and lately pins on Pinterest, social media is fast changing and takes on many different forms, including social networking sites like Facebook, blogs and microblogs like Twitter and WordPress, content communities like YouTube and Flickr, podcasts, wikis, etc. to name a few. But what exactly is Social Media?

The Academic definition:

Social media consists of online tools and websites that encourage people to interact with companies, brands, and people and form communities by creating, publishing, and sharing content. Social media is a two-way communication stream, whereas with traditional media, messaging is published through a one-way communication stream to the masses, e.g. radio, television and newspaper.

An easier way of explaining it is to break it down. Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication.

It is not just a broadcast channel, it is about conversations, community, connecting with personalities and building relationships.

It is about authenticity, honesty and open dialogue

It not only allows you to hear what people say about you, but enables you to respond. Listen first, speak second.

SHOULD YOU CONSIDER SOCIAL MEDIA?

Advertising can be very one-dimensional. A business that only talks to its customers when they have an offer (one way communication) quickly loses their following. For a business to be truly successful, it has to listen first and speak second.

Social media provides that platform to join in the conversation, and speak to customers in a less formal manner, allowing your business to really delve in and identify their behavior, opinions, likes and dislikes. With applications like Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest etc. there is an endless stream of information you can gather to be able to effectively use social media marketing to market your product.

With this information your business can now accurately tailor products and services to meet your clients’ needs.

DO YOU HAVE THE TIME TO MANAGE A SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNEL

Running a successful social media marketing campaign takes dedication and time. You have to maintain a regular posting schedule and frequency that fits in with your objectives. You also have to listen and engage with your fans and followers. By first determining what your goals are, and assessing how valuable social media is in reaching them, you can determine how to allocate your time and resources.

In summary, social media offers a fresh and simple way for businesses to conduct direct relationships with their customers. Done right, a company can access the benefits of social media and listen to customer interactions that help proactively resolve customer complaints and generate new product leads. This all helps in the overall strategy of managing trust and transparency and attaining a more engaged, inspired and loyal customer base, that can be converted into customers.